Console Price War Coming?

[Covert Rain]

If MS plays their cards right and drops their price and continues to counter Sony, this will all but ensure that the PS3 will never rise above #3. Sony cannot win a price war with with MS or Nintendo. The losses for the PS3 are still reported to be between $250 to $300 per unit.

Strange that MS is excelling in areas that Sony did last time. First the early launch and now they are ahead of Sony in the cost cutting curve as well.

The good news is that if this is the beginning, then we as gamers are going to reap the benefits. This is probably just the first salvo. Now if we could only get game developers to start a price war.



http://www.firingsquad.com/news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=16402

While Sony cuts its price for its 60 GB PS3 console by $100, [FONT=Geneva,Arial][FONT=Geneva,Arial]Microsoft [/FONT][/FONT]is reportedly getting ready to reduce costs on its [FONT=Geneva,Arial][FONT=Geneva,Arial]Xbox[/FONT][/FONT][FONT=Geneva,Arial][FONT=Geneva,Arial] 360 [/FONT][/FONT]soon. The San Jose Mercury News is reporting that Microsoft plans to move its graphics and [FONT=Geneva,Arial][FONT=Geneva,Arial]processor[/FONT][/FONT] chip making from the 90-nanometer production process to the 65-nanometer production process later this year with the first consoles with the new process due to be released this fall. While Microsoft won't publicly comment on this issue (which the article says is code named "Falcon") it could cause Sony some headaches in the road ahead:

But once this machine is in the field, Microsoft will have a few options. It can take the power brick and put it inside the same chassis. It can also make a smaller version of the core, but this involves considerable redesign and retooling resources. And it could also beef up the console and make room for more costly things — as it did with the Elite.

It’s anybody’s guess as to what Microsoft will do with the Falcon as its base platform going forward. But Sony had better watch out. Microsoft is moving ahead of Sony on the cost-reduction curve. It would be risky for Sony to get into a price war with Microsoft.

 

[dreamcastrocks]

There are a couple of places saying that the Elite's new price will be $399. A savings of $80. The 360 Premium will drop to $349, and the Core will be the same price as the Wii at $249.

I'll get a "Falcon Elite" when it comes out.

 

[BigRedRage]

Good. I do not plan on owning a ps3 untiol it is WAYYY cheaper but still good, especially for me because I am alot more into xbox these days thanks to xbox live and arcade.

No kidding on the game price wars. I dont mine 60 bucks for most games but most of them that is just a straight ripoff. I buy all of my games through my gamefly account at a minimum 10% discount and they are "used" however I usually have the new new copy sent to me and buy that one for 35 bucks. Works out pretty well.

 

[dodie53]

let the price war begin..

 

[Gaddabout]

I'm still waiting for the open-source console. It's an idea I think will unlock a whole universe. Fast, broadstream networks opened up and not managed by corporate Nazis. Games written freely without concern for market forces. It wouldn't be a financial competitor, but it would force the eventual winner of this contest to stay on its R&D toes.

That's actually kind of cool and kind of scary at the same time. Imagine the folks like the original creators of Grand Theft Auto simply making a game that interests them, without any corporate oversight for content. Scaaaary.

 

[BigRedRage]

Gadda, just buy a PC, that stuff is everywhere on there. I dont want my console to be like a PC. All the internet is is one cool thing and millions of garbage product to sort through to find it. I hate it.

 

[D-Dogg]

I'm still waiting for the open-source console. It's an idea I think will unlock a whole universe. Fast, broadstream networks opened up and not managed by corporate Nazis. Games written freely without concern for market forces. It wouldn't be a financial competitor, but it would force the eventual winner of this contest to stay on its R&D toes.

That's actually kind of cool and kind of scary at the same time. Imagine the folks like the original creators of Grand Theft Auto simply making a game that interests them, without any corporate oversight for content. Scaaaary.

Microsoft offers a dev software package for cheap (a few hundred dollars), and people can create games and put them on XBOX live and sell them to others that way (I don't know if this is out yet, but it was in Xbox mag about 6 months ago). That is revolutionary...it's the 80's/90's shareware time all over again.

 

[D-Dogg]

Microsoft offers a dev software package for cheap (a few hundred dollars), and people can create games and put them on XBOX live and sell them to others that way (I don't know if this is out yet, but it was in Xbox mag about 6 months ago). That is revolutionary...it's the 80's/90's shareware time all over again.

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/directx/aa937794.aspx

Allows people to develop games on their retail xbox and then distribute them through Xbox live.

Standard dev kits to create games are in the tens of thousands per unit...$20K for a ps2 and similar for xbox, iirc. Which is why the Wii's dev kit at $2000 was a shock.

 

[CardFan67]

I had listened to an hour on the radio about this and was searching to find the back up... I could not find what I was looking for. The "insider" information on the radio show said that Sony was not going to discount the PS3 much unless sales on the PS2 dropped. They say at the current price Sony is taking a loss on the PS3. And they are hoping the profitable sales on the PS2 and PSP will keep the console division capable of continued PS3 planning.

The closest article I could find, so far...

I'm talking about the Playstation Two of course, which if you can believe this over six months into Sony's next-gen launch, still pummeled both the company's Playstation 3 (by 106,000) and Microsoft's year-older Xbox 360 (by 33,000) according to NPD Group's May numbers (the PS2 totaled 188,000 units sold). Oh, and I should probably mention the Playstation Portable, which while only 50% of Nintendo DS sales, still leapfrogged the PS2's astonishing numbers by a healthy 33,000. Is Nintendo beating everyone? Sure, but if you figure in PSP and PS2 sales, Sony's at least kicking Microsoft's tail.
But okay, the PS2's days are obviously numbered, and Sony needs to catch up to Microsoft quickly if it wants anything like the spot it's enjoyed for the last half dozen years. Speaking at E3 today, Capcom's Chief Financial Officer Kazuhiko Abe had just the "solution": cut the price on the PS3 before year's end again.
"The number of PS2 users is still growing and a shift to the PS3 is on the back burner," Abe told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday. "But, the price has been cut once and it is likely to be cut again towards the end of the year."
Now I know plenty of you are still balking at a $500 price point, so imagine if that price dropped again to $400 in time for the holidays. Never mind Blu-ray, which I'm still not bothering with, is the PS3 viewed strictly as a games machine worth it at $400?
I think so. While I'd like it to be $250 or $300, that would probably be the magic figure that'd finally sway me.
(By the way, if you're still in the market for a PS2, Sony literally just released another cosmetic makeover (see pic below) to its venerable moneymaker -- the new hardware is code-named SCPH-79000 and weighs about 400 grams lighter, counting the AC adapter. Looks like it's still $129.99 brand new, but I wouldn't be surprised if Sony drops that price to sub-$100 in time for the holidays.)

 

[dreamcastrocks]

Circuit City is already offering it for $499 with a free controller.

Amazon is offering it for $499 with the Bluray remote and Memento or Resident Evil Apocalypse

 

[Gaddabout]

Yep, the one problem with open source anything is finding venture capitol to lure the better software folks. Red Hat Linux is a good example of the problems. It all sounded promising, but in the end they were basically selling manuals for a free OS.

What I'm waiting on is for the boomers who developed for Microsoft, Apple, Sun, Xerox Parc, etc. and made it rich with stock splits to retire and begin taking up open-source projects as retirement hobbies. We're talking about a lot of talented people with incredible programming and problem-solving skills who will have lots of money and nothing to do. I believe when we start seeing this mass exodus from the work force, open-source programming will become the tour du jour for these retirees. It offers all the challenges of their expertise with all the adventure of undiscovered country that thrilled them in their youth.

I think open-source programming for consoles will be high at the list, because gaming programming is so potentially lucrative (and fun).

 

[BigRedRage]

Microsoft offers a dev software package for cheap (a few hundred dollars), and people can create games and put them on XBOX live and sell them to others that way (I don't know if this is out yet, but it was in Xbox mag about 6 months ago). That is revolutionary...it's the 80's/90's shareware time all over again.

its out.

 

[Covert Rain]

Sony just launched the first salvo in the price war. Let's see how soon MS responds.